US election 2024 live: Republicans win Senate after taking key seats from Democrats; Trump wins swing state North Carolina

Sam Levine

One key county that experts are watching in Pennsylvania is Northampton county in the Lehigh valley.

Donald Trump won the county in 2016 when he won Pennsylvania. In 2020, Joe Biden narrowly flipped it when he flipped the state. Tonight, with more than 90% of the vote in, Trump is leading in the county by more than 5 points.

This doesn’t necessarily mean Harris is going to lose Pennsylvania. There’s still a lot of votes to be counted in Philadelphia and its surrounding counties – the bastion of Democratic votes in the state. Those votes could make up for margins Harris has lost elsewhere in the state.

But Harris’ performance here, combined with a decrease in her performance in Scranton’s Lackawanna county, are not the direction Democrats had hoped to see tonight.

Kamala Harris has won the electoral vote in Nebraska’s second congressional district, the Associated Press reports, a potentially crucial victory for her path to the White House.

The district encompasses Omaha, and has grown increasingly Democratic in recent years. Its vote, coupled with victories in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania and in the states that typically vote Democratic, but no other swing states, would give Harris 270 votes, precisely enough to win the White House.

Of the seven swing states, only North Carolina has been called for Donald Trump, so there’s no telling if that scenario will play out.

At a watch party hosted by the Milwaukee County Republican party at an Italian restaurant in the suburbs, Dimitra Anderson, 64, and her pet boa constrictor Tarzan, watched excitedly as the early results came in.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Anderson, who describes herself as a “born-again believer” – and cites her faith as her most powerful political guide. Anderson has been following numerous self-styled prophets online since 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic jarred the world and kept her home from church. Anderson believes confidently – as some religious figures on the Christian far-right have prophesied – that Trump will win the election.

Javier Ramos, a 20-year-old first time voter in attendance at the watch party, wasn’t so confident.

“I’m really anxious,” Ramos told me. He worried that undecided voters would prefer Kamala Harris, and said he felt Trump had been unfairly maligned in the media. “They’re bashing president Trump.”

Here are the states where the presidential election has been called as of 12am ET:

Kamala Harris has won Virginia and Hawaii after previously picking up New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington DC and Maine’s first congressional district.

Donald Trump has won Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming, Kansas, Idaho, Iowa and the third congressional district in Nebraska.

The mood at Harris’s watch party at Howard University in Washington DC has shifted throughout the night. After being jubilant earlier, the crowd is quiet. The TV is tuned to CNN, which shows Trump appearing to be in a strong position to reclaim the White House. Some people appeared to be leaving, as it remains uncertain when or whether Harris will address the crowd at Howard tonight. When CNN predicted that Trump would win North Carolina, one of the seven battleground states that Harris is contesting, there were hardly any boos, just a wave of sighs. After the North Carolina call, the TVs were muted, and the DJ started back up– 2Pac’s California Love. But no one seems to be in the mood for dancing – instead there’s a lot of stone-faced Democrats.

Trump aides, meanwhile, have expressed confidence about their chances, based on results so far, including a substantial win in a key Florida county that is considered a bellwether. Trump also won in Iowa, despite the state’s foremost pollster Ann Selzer on Saturday finding Harris leading by a small amount that was nonetheless within the survey’s margin of error.

The finding was viewed as a potential sign of strength for Harris in nearby Wisconsin and Michigan, two swing states that are demographically similar to Iowa. The Trump campaign decried Selzer’s poll as an outlier, which turned out to be the case.

The GOP has retaken the majority in the Senate, the Associated Press reports, after picking up seats in Ohio and West Virginia, and fending off challenges to their candidates in Texas and Nebraska.

Republicans will control Congress’s upper chamber for the first time in four years. Should Donald Trump win, they will be in a position to confirm his supreme court justices, federal judges and appointees to cabinet posts. If Kamala Harris wins the White House, they can force hold up her appointees, or block them outright.

Adam Gabbatt

There’s an air of nervousness creeping in at the Michigan Democratic watch party. There isn’t quite the buoyancy there was earlier – although Harris supporters are remaining positive.

“I’m still very optimistic. I feel like we’re still in the race. We’re just waiting for the final numbers to come in so we can celebrate and do what we came here to do – and that was to win the presidency,” Henrietta Ivey said. “I still say that we still have a long way to go for the night, and those numbers can all tally up and come through like a wave.”

This is Chelsea Dureseaux’s first time voting in Michigan in 12 years – she just moved back to her home state after a spell living in Louisiana.

“It’s an honor for me to come back home for this historical election and be able to cast my vote where it actually matters,” she said. Dureseaux said she was “nervous, but also hopeful”.

“It’s like the tortoise and the hare race, is how I feel about it, and I feel like she’s gonna come out on top,” she said. Dureseaux said that a Harris win would have a special resonance: “If you think about how far we’ve come, and the rights that we have gained as women, and what the people in the past have fought for – this is that moment right here. So it’s a pivotal moment, and I’m praying that we actually get to write it down in the history books.”

Lauren Gambino

Earlier in the night, the crowd erupted in cheers as the TVs at Harris HQ flipped from CNN’s analysis to hear Angela Alsobrooks give her victory speech.

Alsobrooks will be the first Black woman to represent Maryland in the Senate, after defeating the Republican former governor, Larry Hogan. Many in the crowd live in Maryland, which neighbors Washington DC.

Alsobrooks noted that in the nation’s nearly 250-year history, “only three have looked like me”, she said. Until tonight, only three Black women had served in the Senate, including Kamala Harris.

“I want to salute all of those who came before me,” Alsobrooks said as the crowd in Washington DC cheered. “We’re going to be celebrating this one for a moment.”

Kamala Harris has won Hawaii, the Associated Press reports.

The vice-president’s victory was expected, and she picks up four electoral votes.

Rachel Leingang

I’m at the Arizona Democratic Party’s election night party at a Phoenix hotel, where the crowd of liberal party faithfuls cheered as NBC’s Steve Kornacki showed results from around the country, broadcasted on two big screens at the front of the room.

When the first drop of results from Arizona’s Maricopa county, a swing county, showed Harris with a slight edge, Democrats roared and cheered – but it’s clear to all that there’s likely a long road ahead until races are called.

Democratic US Senator Mark Kelly and former US Representative Gabby Giffords, his wife, said before results dropped that they’re optimistic for Democrats tonight, but it’ll be a while for results.

Kelly stressed accuracy over speed, with Giffords adding, “Patience, patience, patience.”

Democratic governor Katie Hobbs said she was optimistic about the state’s eventual results, but added, “We have to prepare for a really long evening, a really long couple of days, and make sure all these votes are counted.”

Polls have just closed in Hawaii, one of the final two states that were still voting.

It’s a Democratic stronghold, and Kamala Harris is expected to win its four electoral votes.

The only other state where polls remain open statewide is Alaska. Voting finishes there at 1am eastern time.

Abené Clayton

Another dispatch from Black voters in California:

Jasmyne Cannick, a Los Angeles-based political strategist who worked as a consultant on five local campaigns, started her election day with a political activation event alongside her close friend, Nana Gyamfi, an attorney who heads Black Alliance for Just Immigration, a legal advocacy group. Cannick says she’s excited to hopefully see Kamala Harris win the presidency but worried about the potential for subsequent protests and violence.

“I wanna make sure this country doesn’t act like a fool. That worries me,” she said. “When Kamala wins I hope no one pulls out the pitchforks and come for us. We saw what happened on January 6 so we know what’s possible.”

Cannick and Gyamfi joined actresses Meagan Good and Amber Riley for stops in downtown LA, where they spoke with canvassers, handed out voter information and took people to the polls.

The work, combined with avoiding the news, had Cannick feeling excited to begin an evening of election night event-hopping that she hopes will end in celebrations for the local races she has supported.

“Those are important: your trash, your potholes, your parks, your schools. These are critical positions that affect us quickly,” she said. “If they vote down there to raise your water bill, that’s going to happen immediately. Sometimes we get so distracted by the noise that we just pay attention to what happened in DC. But we’ve got to walk and chew gum at the same time.”

Earlier in the night, Kamala Harris supporters gathered at Howard University, the vice-president’s alma mater, for what they hoped would be a historic night celebrating the first Black woman elected US president. The mood has shifted over the course of the evening, but here are some photos from our photographer on the scene:

Lauren Gambino

The mood has certainly shifted at the Harris HQ. The crowd is quiet. The TV is tuned to CNN as Trump appears to be in a strong position to reclaim the White House.

Many supporters are refreshing their phones. One woman in my view is chewing her nails. A few groups appear to be leaving, as it remains uncertain when or whether Harris will address the crowd at Howard tonight.

At 11.40pm, CNN predicted that Donald Trump would win North Carolina, one of the seven battleground states that Harris had contested. There were hardly any boos. Just a wave of sighs.

After the North Carolina call, the TVs were muted, and the DJ started back up, playing 2Pac’s California Love. But no one seems to be in the mood for dancing. Instead there’s a lot of stone-faced Democrats.

Kamala Harris has won Virginia and its 13 electoral votes, the Associated Press Reports.

Virginia is another state that has trended blue lately, but nonetheless received a visit from Donald Trump last week – fruitlessly, as it turned out.

Republican Ted Cruz has been re-elected to the Senate in Texas, the Associated Press reports.

The party was hoping that a victory by congressman Colin Allred against the incumbent, who gained notoriety for vacationing in Cancún as a deadly cold spell struck the state, could help them keep their 51- seat majority. But Texas is a reliably Republican state, and voters there have given Cruz another six years in the office.

It’s another blow to Democrats’ hopes of keeping the majority, after losing seats in West Virginia and Ohio earlier this evening.

Missouri voters approved a ballot measure enshrining abortion rights into the state constitution, setting the state up to overturn its near-total abortion ban – a first in the US post-Roe v Wade.

The measure protects the right to abortion up until fetal viability, or about 24 weeks of pregnancy. Its success in a ruby-red state is a stunning repudiation of the US supreme court’s 2022 overturning of Roe as well as a signal of just how powerful the issue of abortion has become in US politics.

The passage of the Missouri measure does not, however, automatically overturn the state’s ban. Abortion rights supporters must first pursue litigation or legislation to officially strike down restrictions.

A total of 10 states are voting on abortion ballot measures on Tuesday. Maryland, Colorado, and New York have all passed measures to expand protections for abortion rights while Florida’s measure fell short of the 60% it needed to pass. That failure left the state’s six-week abortion ban in place.

Three other states still have the chance to vote to overturn abortion bans. Results are forthcoming.

Kamala Harris has won New Mexico, the Associated Press reports, dashing the Donald Trump campaign’s hopes of a surprise victory in the south-western state.

New Mexico has typically voted Democratic in recent elections, but Trump campaigned there last week, hoping to flip it to his side. He was not successful, and Harris has won its five electoral votes.